All together in song: You can talk about your cutting-edge constructions at SFMOMA and your glittering geegaws at the Legion of Honor, but gimme, just gimme, that old-time Sixth Street art.

Urban Solutions offered a Friday night art walk, an excavation of a variety of spaces turned into galleries around that boulevard of something-or-other. No hobnobbing with effete First Thursday white-wine sippers; nods instead to the welcoming committee slumped on the sidewalks. The feeling, on the part of art lovers and also the artists and galleries moving into the area: optimism and derring-do. Highlights:

The S.F. Barber College has moved away, but a few rubber heads - highly decorated - had been left behind. An installation by the collective Inks of Truth.com used them alongside small paintings and photos; artist Rey Cayetano, wrapped in danger tape, and barbershop sinks were also employed. The Luggage Store Gallery, on Market Street, is showing - through Nov. 17 - Michael Arcega's "Baby and the Nacirema," about trekking through the country with a floatable boat in tow. It includes Arcega's souvenirs and astonishing piñatas (an Army tank, the Statue of Liberty, more). At Pranzo Pizza, Raven Voss' encaustic (an ancient technique in which wax is mixed with oil paints) works hung alongside a vending machine filled with soft drinks. And at the Club 6, as happens every Thursday, a patron was repainting one of many wall panels with a portrait of a woman. SF Camerawork (in a former Singer Sewing Machine building) showed (through Saturday) eerie and surreal works by Gerald Slota (Joyce Carol Oateswrote the essay for his book); at the Bayanihan Community Center, Holly Calicaand Jenny Bower Young demonstrated a traditional Filipino weaving technique; and at Dottie's True Blue Cafe, there were photos by Joan Osato and music by Mr. Odom and the Odom Poles. The truth is that for me, the art stroll was an art gallop. I had to get home to watch the ballgame.

Saturday night, we did our best with "costumes," but the truth is we were outshone by all the glittering folks at the Anything Goes costume gala of Silicon Valley's TheatreWorks. The party - their 10th such - is held in the company's Scene Shop. Guests are invited to make use of costumes from 43 years of productions, a stock so rich that other companies around the country often rent from TheatreWorks.

That said, call it laziness or call it saving the environment, we didn't want to drive all the way to Menlo Park ahead of time to choose our clothes, so we improvised. Among wenches, maharajahs, damsels, dukes, dames and other saucy numbers, we were chopped liver in a mishmash of ethnic finery gleaned from the closet.

Artistic Director Robert Kelley was more precisely attired in a well-fitting coat from the 19th century. "We don't all know the difference between 1820 and 1880," he said wisely. Most costume wearers are pleased to tack on a ruffle here, add a feather there, and make straight for the hosted bar.

TheatreWorks is one of the 40 largest companies (based on its $8 million a year budget) in the country. As to its production of new works, that's natural for Silicon Valley, said Kelley, where "everyone thinks their garage is about to become a national monument. It's a great area to build something new, the easiest place in the country to explain why you should do new work."

The British newspaper the Financial Times reports that in 2014, the Welsh National Opera will stage the premiere of Gordon Getty's "Usher House" (which will be at San Francisco Opera, too). "We're doing the Getty opera," David Pountney, Welsh National Opera executive and artistic director, told the newspaper, "but thanks to his generosity, I've got three U.K. premieres by British composers." Pountney responded to the story with a letter stressing that he had admired Getty's work, and "the result of Getty's generosity is a win all round." Composer Getty, contributing more than $2 million to the company, wrote saying that he supposes his work was accepted because Pountney likes it, and his commitment to the company would stand whether his work is performed or not.

Public Eavesdropping

"I do so know French pastries. A doughnut without the hole is a Danish."